Monthly Archives: June 2012

Happy Bobby Goldsboro Day
30
Jun

Today is the last day of June, and it is on this day that we worshippers of early 70s MOR remember this record by Bobby Goldsboro, especially appropriate since its a reasonably hot afternoon …

You never forget your first time. This song will bring it crashing back in all its bittersweet, wistful glory. Every time. Starting off with this opening line – so damn evocative …

It was a hot afternoon, the last day of June, and the sun was a demon
The clouds were afraid, 110 in the shade, and the pavement was steamin’

Love the next bit – he’s on his own, just walking, not on the pull or anything.

I told Billy Ray in his red Chevrolet, I needed time for some thinkin’
She was just passing by and I looked in her eye, and I swore it was winkin’
She was 31 and I was 17
I knew nothing bout love, she knew everything
So I sat down beside her on the front porch swing

Well, you would, wouldn’t you? 8=)

And wondered what the coming night would bring

The listener is left to hang on that line … and invited to remember. That feeling in the air of … possibility … just maybe …

The sun closed her eyes as it climbed in the sky
And it started to swelter
The sweat trickled down the front of her gown
And I thought it would melt her

This next bit really brings back the memory of how awkward and gauche a young man can be in these situations. And who’s got the power!

She threw back her hair like I wasn’t there
And she sipped on a julep
Her shoulders were bare and I tried not to stare
When I looked at her two lips

And when she looked at me I heard her softly say
I know you’re young – you don’t know what to do or say
But stay with me until the sun has gone away
And I will chase the boy in you away

The song has taken a very long time to build to this point – like he can’t quite believe what is happening.

And then she smiled, and we talked for a while
Then we walked for a mile to the sea
We sat on the sand. and a boy took her hand
But I saw the sun rise as a man

There follows a magnificent instrumental break consisting of the orchestral equivalent of waves crashing against the beach…
If the song ended right there it would STILL be the best song about coming of age EVAH, but there’s a bittersweet coda – the guy’s reminiscing about this, remember.

Ten years have gone by since I looked in her eye
But the memory lingers
I go back in my mind to the very first time
And feel the touch of her fingers

Not “her hand”. “Her fingers”. This makes all the difference.
And finally, the descending musical pattern over the reprise of the first verse is a masterstroke here – brings you back to reality and a realisation that nothing will ever be quite the same …

It was a hot afternoon, the last day of June
And the sun was a demon
The clouds were afraid, 110 in the shade
And the pavement was steaming

… but you still have the memories. Enjoy the song now.

PS – Loved this Youtube comment. Step forward Albacorewing, you are so right!

This song was written in 1968 about a 1958 event, and released in 1973. I heard it when it first came out. She would be 85 today, and he is 71. Live your lives well. Time waits for no one and before you know it you may be a stranger in a strange land.

Pussy Riot in Russia
25
Jun

The Russians always start tournaments really well, everybody tips them to win the thing and then they bow out tamely. In Euro 2012 they lost to the vile anti-football of Greece. Shame.

Being of a certain age, if you say Russian music to me the first thing I think of is the traditional folk song “Kalinka”, preferably sung by the Red Army Choir.

Here it is – it does admittedly go on a bit after a while but don’t give up on it – at around 5:30 the mighty good-time rock’rollers with the silly haircuts the Leningrad Cowboys start on “Gimme All Your Lovin” – with full accompaniment from the Red Army guys, Russian dancers, the lot. Mental.

If only the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee organisers were a bit more imaginative. Could have had Take That performing “Lazy Sunday Afternoon” backed by the London Symphony Orchestra with Morris dancers. Or are we saving that for the Olympics Opening Ceremony?

Strangely, my late Dad had a version of “Kalinka” by the Red Army Choir which I like to think reflected his socialistic tendencies. I’m adding one of his records per week to Beats The John Peel Archive into a cocked hat for eclecticism. Not that I am biased.

This is a huge current Russian dance hit. I like it, its got a good beat. Its called “Moscow” by DJ Smash and Vintaj. I like dance music a lot better when I can’t understand the lyrics and can therefore kid myself that they aren’t inane.

Yuri Morozov was one of the first Russian singer-songwriters to embrace psychedelia. Like many of his songs, this has a strong Russian folk influence as well. Not a million miles away from Colorama, who regular readers of this blog will know are one of my favourite Welsh language psych-folk acts of the present day.

Here’s a real oddity from 1971 by a band called Pesnary (the name means “Bards”) – mixes up a lot of different influences. You can hear kids TV themes, psychedelia and an incredibly funky bass line.

Finally, an event that happened in Russia earlier this year which deserves wider attention.

This is a band called Pussy Riot who made a name for themselves earlier this year by storming the stage – sorry, altar – at Christ The Saviour cathedral in Moscow

Not simply latter-day Visigoths doing big jobs in the font, far from it. Although that would obviously be brilliant.

The refrain translates as “Virgin Mary, Mother of God, help us and chase Putin away”

The song is a prayer to the Virgin Mary to ask her for help and protection against Russian fascism, and Vladimir Putin in particular. The band (really a loose feminist collective with an indeterminate number of members, all anonymous) can be seen as radical religious warriors who are fighting for what is right.

The music is pretty basic, but just like punk in the 70s in the UK, the music is not the point. And its fair to say that even post-totalitarianism, there is still more to complain about in Russia than in England’s green and pleasant land.

You can follow the Free Pussy Riot Campaign on Twitter and you can also “like” the Free Pussy Riot Facebook Page.

Please do. Sign petitions, spread the word, this shit is important.

One last thing – I’ve just realised the Leningrad Cowboys are in fact from Finland. Bugger.

Perfect Pop & Denmark’s Delia Derbyshire
16
Jun

Alphabeat have got a new single out!

If you don’t know them, they were all over the place around 2007-2008. They hit the radar of the hipsters as the token pop band it was OK to like – “Fascination” was their big hit:

I was actually at this gig at the Borderline in London. They sound incredibly tight live, which isn’t as easy as you think to achieve for full-on pop music.

There were signs even on the first album that they could have life beyond mere novelty, notably “What Is Happening”, a perfect Chairmen Of The Board / Dexys-sounding mature pop song, hinting at what they could conceivably achieve in years to come.

They even did A Public Image Limited cover version, which is frankly not their finest hour but worth hearing for novelty value. Daughter #1 was astonished to hear this was not an original (and she hates the original too, but then nobody’s perfect).

Alphabeat have a new album out soon and the lead single is called “Vacation” which is an homage to Madonna’s “Holiday” . God bless ‘em for staying the course.

Etferklang are an indie band from Copenhagen who release albums every few years which are always worth hearing. This track is lovely, it just gets into your head and won’t leave.

Now, to counter all this fresh-faced pop and dreamy indie loveliness, to Elsie Marie Pade, one of the first Danish practitioners of electronic music.

This track is from 1970. The repeated phrase is Danish for “Hitler is not dead”. Before it was censored, the track ended with the line “He lives on in Nixon”.

If you think THAT’S weird for its time, how about this one from 1958?

And this one from 1962 sounds absolutely contemporary. Still.

Else Marie Prade was born in 1924 and is still making music.

For more on Else and others, I recommend this excellent blog on women in electronic music

Finally, I couldn’t really write anything on Danish music without mentioning The Raveonettes.

For ten years, The Raveonettes have been one of my favourite bands. Yeah, they sound like Duane Eddy and The Jesus And Mary Chain and Blondie. Yeah, they’re dead retro, stuck in the late 50s / early 60s surfy gutar sound, with maybe a punky buzzsaw update.

But like all my favourite bands down the years, I have a total blind spot for them and I can’t really put my finger on what is so great about them.

With The Ravs, the basic test as to whether you will like them is to listen to this song

If you like this, you will like everything they’ve done. If not, then move along. Nothing to see here. And I don’t want to be your friend anyway. It would never have worked out.

Next in our journey around those bits of Europe that are slightly better at football than some of the other bits  – the Former Soviet Republic Of Russia.

Disco Polo
15
Jun

There are a few pop stars these days who have a little bit more to them than meets the eye from pictures like this one :

Dorota Rabczewska aka Doda shows off her tongue stud

Doda is one of the biggest pop stars in Poland. She has recently been found guilty of the crime of “offending religious sensibilities” for remarking in a year-ago television interview that she believed more in dinosaurs than she did in the Bible because “it is hard to believe in something written by people who drank too much wine and smoked herbal cigarettes”.

Bible Stories by Doda

If John Lennon had made his famous quote about the Beatles being “bigger than Jesus” and Christianity “fading away and dying pretty soon” in the present day in Poland, he’d probably have been crucified. Maybe literally.

Doda’s music is great pop. Non-Polish speakers shouldn’t let that put them off – after all, who listens to lyrics anyway? Love this video. Never mind the gyrating bottoms, this is a great track!

I reckon she actually looks slightly hotter at the start of the video with the glasses and fluffy slippers on. But maybe that’s just me.

Doda’s website is  here – loads of pix and videos. Enjoy.

For every one of Doda’s followers on Twitter, there are 469 who follow Shakira. Which isn’t as bad as it sounds as a LOT of people follow Shakira. Even former chat show hosts from Norwich.

Here are some Polish football hooligans who formed a boy band called – This is actually rather loverly. Take THAT, Take That. And they could definitely take Take That if it came to fisticuffs.

MIG “Co Ty Mi Dasz”

Now to what is becoming the obligatory prog rock section – a genre you can trust, no matter what the origin or the language. Poland’s biggest ever prog rock band were called SBB (which originally stood for the Silesian Blues Band). Not, unfortunately the Silurian Blues Band

Diana Ross And The Silurians

The name changed its meaning to the classically muddy prog monicker “Search, Break Up, Build”. Whatever the hell that means. The band are great – they properly rock out at times, as you can hear on this track which along with the usual proggy influences, has something of Roxy Music in the guitar solo. Definite similarities to Focus, too.

Finally, Republika were big in the 80s and 90s. This is called “Moja Krew” (“My Blood”)

Never made it over to the UK (don’t get me started on British cultural narrow-mindedness – a topic for another day …)

Next up – Denmark. Yeah, that means Alphabeat. Obviously.

Prog Rock (and more) from Italy
10
Jun

Italy’s footballers have the daunting task of stopping the Spanish juggernaut this evening, against a backdrop of yet another match-fixing scandal engulfing the Italian domestic game.

However, last time such a scandal erupted was in 2006, and that was the year that a dishevelled, unfancied Italian team got off their collective backsides and actually won the World Cup, in a final match that was less famous for the result than for Zinedine Zidaine’s headbutt on Marco Materazzi.

Musically, Italy has a rich history dating back to medieval times. Most people know Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” – this is “Winter” by I Musici, which has an unexpectedly great video.

The first Italian band I remember being aware of was PFM (Premiata Forneria Marconi – which is apparently Italian for “Award-winning Marconi bakery”.

They were the first Italian band to use a Moog synth in the seventies and can be said to have invented Italian prog rock.

As you can hear from the videos embedded below, their music was very much influenced by their British contemporaries like Yes and especially Genesis. Two things set them apart – first, the vocals. The band never rated their vocals and later in their career took on a specialist lead vocalist, but I quite like the gentler, more pastoral feel to the vocals on their earler stuff. And the keyboard lines are so much more melodic than anything produced by Rick Wakeman or Tony Banks.

For every PFM fan on facebook there are 5.65 fans of Yes, which seems unfair to me.

Impressioni Di Settembre – this 1972 clip is a bit grainy and the sound quality is not great but you can hear what they’re about.

Greg Lake of the prog giants ELP signed them to Manticore records and they released a few English-language albums, notably “The World Became The World”.

River Of Life – a pastoral, folky feel to this one at the beginning. Definitely a bit like King Crimson. Lyrics by “Mr pretentious” Pete Sinfield (“a vale of tears for the virgin birth”. Right on, Pete!)

This album also included a re-recording of “Impressioni di settembre” as the title track. This was their last collaboration with Pete Sinfield, as the group were not entirely pleased with the content of his English lyrics. (I reckon that prior to 1975 their English was not good enough to recognise bad poetry)

Which brings me to an interesting point – I love PFM, but I like their Italian stuff far better. I suspect this may be because I don’t understand Italian, so I remain in blissful ignorance of the lyrics.

May do a Top Ten worst prog rock lyrics one day. Watch this space.

Moving more up to date, Koine are a good indie-rock band. The big beautiful Italian vocals work really well with the jangly guitars. This one hits a classic rock groove towards the end and is none the worse for it. (The song actually finishes around 3.23, I wouldn’t bother with the two minutes of credits after that)

And finally, “La Cacada” by Checcio Zalone is currently number one in the Italian dance charts. I like this, its got a good beat. And still with the lovely voice. He’d have been singing opera back in the days of Vivaldi. But with worse teeth.

Ukraine tomorrow, a country which, I think it is fair to say, has not made a huge splash on the international music scene for one reason or another. Is this justified? Find out tomorrow, unless you’re Ukranian in which case I guess you already know the answer.